- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
It has come to my attention recently that not only do some people not know how to make links in general, but several of the features available with them on this site are seldom used.
First off, the basics. To make a normal link, type [url]*url here*[/url]. For example, if I made a link to The Septagon using this technique, it would look like this:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3
However, most people will choose to use named links instead of the previous technique. To make a named link, type [url=*url here*]*link name here*[/url]. For example, a link to The Septagon (once again) would look like this:
The Septagon
A named link is good for interspersing with sentences and improving the flow of the topic. For instance, I could say ‘join this group’ and ‘this’ would actually be a link to the group’s home page. It is often advisable to underline the named links so that people will know that they are actual links.
A minor glitch relating to links is that when you edit a post containing long links, they will ‘break’, or insert a space randomly. This will cause the link not to work and is a source of annoyance for those editing posts with lots of links. It is, however, easily cured with the following feature.
There is a site called tinyurl.com, which can be found here. What this site does is change a large url into a small one. The only thing you have to do is type in the url that you want shortened into the bar, and click ‘Make Tinyurl!’ The site then gives you a shorter url that, when clicked, goes to the same place. I will once again use the example of The Septagon.
Here is a link to The Septagon without Tinyurl:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3
Here is a link to The Septagon with Tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/dqjs5
As you can see, the amount of characters in the link is greatly diminished. This is especially useful in signatures, where the 500-character limit which is quickly eaten away by links.
Another useful (if seldom used) feature of links is linking directly to posts. For instance, I will now demonstrate by linking to my post right below this one:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=6031263
This method of linking requires some work. First off, you need the post ID number. To get this, hit ‘reply.’ Copy and paste the url of the ‘reply’ page into a separate program, such as Word. Take the ID number (it’s the number that appears after ‘postID=’) and copy and paste it onto the end of the following text:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=
So, for instance, if the ID of the post was ‘7777777,’ the text would look like:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=7777777
Put this text in link form, and you have a link to a specific post.
A new trick that has come to my attention recently is another small and seldom used feature. Observe, if you will, the following two links:
Link #1
Link #2
Did you notice the difference? Link #1 opened a whole new window to The Septagon when clicked, while Link #2 used the same window. How do you accomplish this? The answer is surprisingly simple. The normal url for The Septagon is as follows:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3
To make a link to it without opening a new window, change it to:
/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=3
Basically, you just take away the ‘http://www.bungie.net.’ It’s a subtle yet useful skill that will add an unconscious professional touch to your links. Note that this is only usable to links inside of Bungie.net. You could not, for instance, link to http://www.nhl.com/scores/ using just /scores/ from Bungie.net.
I hope you use your newfound knowledge of links well.
Note: Information on linking to posts was provided by Reiginko, and information on not opening a new window in links was provided by Psyched.
If you have any other subtleties relating to links or further questions, feel free to post them.
[Edited on 1/27/2006]